par

Definition

The target inventory level for each ingredient, supposedly calculated scientifically but often based on that one Saturday when everyone inexplicably ordered the same dish. Also what you're constantly scrambling to maintain.

Example Usage

We're below par on everything except kale, which apparently no one wants despite what the menu says.

Origin

From 'par stock,' borrowed from golf terminology meaning the expected standard

Fun Fact

Poor par level management is the silent profit killer, leading to either waste or those dreaded '86' moments.

Source: Restaurant inventory management terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

burn

To get caught without necessary ingredients or having botched an order beyond salvation. Also, to deliberately sabotage someone's order out of spite—kitchen karma at its finest.

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Advanced

Woodstock Flakes

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dragging

When a dish or station is running behind schedule, slowing down the entire kitchen's timing. The culinary version of being the weak link in a relay race.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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confect

To prepare or create something by combining ingredients, particularly when making confections or sweets. It's the pretentious verb form of 'making candy,' used by people who want to sound more artisanal than saying they mixed sugar with stuff. Can also mean to put together or devise something more generally, but mostly it's about fancy candy-making.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Intermediate

Charcuterie

The art of preparing cured meats, or more commonly, the Instagram-famous board of meats, cheeses, fruits, and crackers arranged so beautifully that eating it feels like vandalism. Every millennial has attempted a charcuterie board. Most are just Lunchables with better lighting.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Beginner

ghost kitchen

A restaurant that exists only for delivery, with no dining room or physical presence beyond a kitchen cranking out UberEats orders. It's the food service version of a shell company, optimized for apps instead of human interaction.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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See “par” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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Intermediate

write-down

The accounting equivalent of admitting you overpaid for something—a reduction in the book value of an asset that's los...